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Jackie Cornejo, Director of the Don’t Waste LA campaign, and Hays Witt, the Partnership’s Transforming Trash Campaign Director, will be on the Union Edge radio show tomorrow discussing the good jobs and zero waste implications of Don’t Waste LA’s recent win at City Hall. You can listen live on Friday, April 11, at 2:45 Eastern, and we will have a link to the show on our website afterwards.

Port trucking companies labeling employee truckers as independent contractors break state and U.S. laws and cost the country billions of dollars, a study said. A joint report released Wednesday indicated about 49,000 of the nation's 75,000 port truck drivers were misclassified as independent contractors, violating state and federal labor and tax laws, including provisions covering wage-and-hour standards, income taxes, unemployment insurance, union-related matters and workers' compensation.

Now more than ever, low-income communities of color need a foothold in the economy. The Partnership and our colleagues at National Employment Law Project (NELP) have teamed up to share policy tools for removing barriers and gaining access to job opportunities for those who need them most. On October 23, NELP and the Partnership hosted “Putting Our Communities Back to Work: targeted hire and ban the box policies,” a webinar attended by hundreds of people in cities across the country.

Partnership Executive Director Leslie Moody has been recognized as a Democracy Champion by National Priorities Project (NPP). NPP recognized Moody, one of 32 allies and partners from across the country, “for exemplary leadership and tenacious commitment to the democratic ideals upon which our nation was founded.”

There has been a lot of hand-wringing about how to revive Rust Belt cities, and Detroit residents are hoping their city can serve as a national model. Recently residents approached the Detroit City Council with their case for a written Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) governing the development of a 45-block parcel, which will include a new Red Wings Hockey Arena. Community groups are asking the Council to include a written community benefits provision as part of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) expansion approval.

ALIGN and the Transform Don’t Trash NYC coalition launched an exciting new campaign to make the city’s trash industry cleaner, more efficient and better for workers and communities. Anchored by ALIGN, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council 16 & Local 813, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, more than 100 coalition members and supporters gathered at City Hall on October 2nd to launch the campaign.

LAANE and sixteen allies at Long Beach Rising are driving a multifaceted, non-partisan civic engagement program. On the heels of last fall’s stunning 64% living wage victory, Long Beach Rising continues to reach out to new voters.

In San Jose, the Working Partnerships team joined California Calls’ non-partisan effort. For fifteen days, they phone-banked and walked door-to-door, talking to more than 6,000 low-propensity voters about the biggest expansion of the safety net in generations, the Affordable Care Act.